PILATES and lifestyle w/ and emphasis on food and DRINK

Los Angeles to the Grand Canyon

488 miles to the Canyon Plaza Resort. 101 to 10 east, 15 north, 40 east and finally the Arizona 64 north. This drive was only supposed to take 7 hours and 25 minutes, but with food stops and bathroom breaks for Delilah, I don’t think we arrived until 8 pm.

The drive was beautiful. We drove thru flat desert, along little mountains and up into windy narrow roads that made my hands sweaty. At one point we had to switch and Andrew had to take over. Good thing we switched when we did because a few miles later it started snowing! Not like crazy snow storm snowing, but little flurries. It was so pretty.

We got to our hotel and were able to get some food to go from their restaurant. We ate quickly and started to get ready for bed since we wanted to get up early and catch the sunrise at the Grand Canyon.

In the morning we hurried out and made our way up into the Grand Canyon. The roads were icy and it was dark so we took our time seeing as my Honda Civic is no outdoorsy, I got this ice, vehicle. Luckily Andrew had a little more experience driving in snow and ice than I did.

We parked at the El Tovar Hotel and made our way into their lobby. They were still decorated for Christmas and had a massive Christmas tree in the middle and a beautiful fireplace crackling in the corner. We asked the receptionist where to see the sunrise and she directed us out the side door which put us right at the edge.

Because of the clouds and the weather, there wasn’t a moment of the sun peeking over but the whites and grays made for an even better view. I had only seen pictures of the Grand Canyon during the summer, with lots of reds, oranges and browns. This was a completely different view. To me it looked like part of a fairy tale or a scene out of Game of Thrones. Delilah was digging the snow and I was wishing I had brought different pants for the trip that didn’t have holes in them.

We ordered breakfast burritos from the restaurant and headed on our way to Santa Fe.